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Intercultural Training Methods
Matysová, Kamila ; Zadražilová, Dana (advisor) ; Klosová, Anna (referee) ; Bedrnová, Eva (referee)
Goal. The goal of the following study is it to propose educational measures in readiness for the methods of intercultural training at the Faculty of International Relations of the University of Economics Prague based on revealed cultural attitudes of the students studying International Trade to chosen ethnic, national, racial and religious groups (also called categories). In particular, the goal is it to detect explicit and implicit attitudes and related prejudice, stereotypes and experienced emotions of the students studying International Trade (IT) at the University of Economics Prague to/against 17 (respectively 20) chosen categories; to evaluate its magnitude for business practice and economy; and to propose appropriate measures for intercultural training. Sample and conditions. 167 students of International Trade from The University of Economics Prague took part in the first study. For measuring magnitude of the determinants of explicit attitudes 166 members of common population were questioned. Another 293 students were questioned in the first study and altogether 460 students took part in the second study. There were used the Bogardus social distance scale as a measuring psychological technique for explicit attitudes and prejudice, the syllogisms aptitude tests as a measuring tool for implicit attitudes and prejudice and the open questionnaire for stereotypes. Hypotheses. The following hypothesis was settled in the first study: Attitudes of the IT students have specific features, on the one hand, they differ from the attitudes and prejudice of common population and on the other hand, they have relation to the status of the perceived national, ethnic, racial and religious groups. There were tested 24 zero, working hypotheses. The first 17 working hypotheses are related to the relationship between the memberships in the two observed populations and the expressed explicit attitudes and prejudice. The next 6 hypotheses are connected to the attitudes of the students to occidental nationalities, to the Ukrainians, Russians, the Mongols and Moldovans, to the Slovaks and Czechs, Arabians and Muslims. The last working hypothesis is related to the relationship between explicit and implicit attitudes to and prejudice against Roma minority and Muslims. The following hypothesis was settled in the second study: Stereotypes of the observed population refer to the real existing intercultural differences, experienced emotions and projected cultural complexes. There was tested a working hypothesis related to the dependence between prejudice and stereotypes. Statistical analysis. The data were analyzed by the chi-square test and the strength of the relationship was measured by Cramér V. Furthermore agglomerative clustering by nearest neighbor method was applied and the results were presented as a horizontal dendrogram. Results. The results of the first study are well fitting the settled hypothesis. International Trade Students have relatively less prejudice comparing to the common population, it is influenced by their age as well as by their academic degree. There were identified several clusters of categories, that show similar attitudes. The students have positive, but not identical attitudes to all occidental categories, the same attitudes to the Ukrainians and Russians, Arabians and Muslims. The most favored national group are the Slovaks and the most prejudiced ethnic group is the Roma minority. There is dependence between explicit and implicit attitudes. The results of the second study are well fitting the settled hypothesis. Stereotypes of the observed population refer to the real existing intercultural differences as well as to experienced emotions and projected cultural complexes. The dependence between explicit stereotypes and explicit prejudice is caused by positively connoted attributes. Proposed educational measures for intercultural training are discussed in the study illustrated with examples of optional course 2OP321 Effective communication in English. Limits. Bogardus social distance scale is mostly focused on the behavioral component of the explicit attitudes, which does not necessarily mean an equivalent behavioral action.
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